An album of 11 brand new songs shouldn’t sound like an exercise in nostalgia, but in essence that’s what Not Your Kind of People delivers. It’s not hard to tell why – Garbage’s unique blend of grunge, industrial rock and radio-ready pop hits made them massive in the late ‘90s, but the ‘00s weren’t quite as kind to them, and their 2007 best of, Absolute Garbage, featured only four songs from the third and fourth albums. After that… silence. Until now.
Anyone who longs for the days of ‘Vow’, ‘Only Happy When It Rains’ and ‘Push It’ will be in hog heaven – Not Your Kind of People has the imperious, apparently ageless Shirley Manson at her dangerously sexy best, and songs like ‘I Hate Love’ and ‘Battle In Me’ have the same arena-dominating melodies, the same guitar crunch and the same high-end production values as those classic first two albums. The artwork even references the band’s 1995 debut, for goodness’ sake.
On the debit side, ‘Automatic Systematic Habit’ overdoes the futurism and ends up sounding dated, and the lyrics of ‘Man On A Wire’ should have ended up in the studio bin. But ‘Control’ is fantastic – a genuine anthem – and ‘Sugar’ echoes moments of tenderness like ‘Milk’ and ‘The Trick Is To Keep Breathing’. In fact, the only real innovation on the record is the My Bloody Valentine-aping ‘Felt’, and that’s hardly a new sound.
The inference is that Garbage have been around long enough to know just what they are good at. That they pull it off so well is only to be applauded.